DateLine: 27th June 2009

England will host two Test matches and two Twenty20 internationals between Pakistan and Australia in 2010, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced on Friday.

Pakistan is currently unable to host international cricket because of security concerns, which were heightened following a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in March in Lahore.

The matches will take place in July 2010.

The ECB also announced that England will take on Pakistan in four Tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internationals in England in August and September of next year.

ECB chairman Giles Clarke said: "The Pakistan team performed outstandingly well in the World T20 tournament in England and were worthy world champions.

"The passion of the support for their team in England demonstrated why this country is an ideal venue for these matches against Australia."

Clarke has agreed to serve as chairman of a task-force set up by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to devise ways of helping the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to maintain its international fixture schedule.

"The Pakistan Cricket Board is faced with a very challenging situation at present and ECB in its role as a member of the global cricket community is keen to offer PCB all possible assistance at such a difficult time," Clarke said.

"I am delighted to take on this role and will be liaising closely with my colleagues at PCB in the coming weeks and months."

He added: "The warm relations between our two boards has developed further under the leadership of the current PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, with whom I enjoy an excellent working relationship, and ECB is delighted to support Pakistan in staging these matches."

The announcement of these fixtures came just a day after the ICC confirmed that Pakistan would not, as planned, stage matches during the 2011 World Cup.

Instead the ICC said on Thursday that the 14 World Cup matches due to be played in Pakistan would be split between the three other sub-continent co-hosts of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

But the PCB, which is taking legal action against the ICC, still hopes to stage its matches in a "neutral" venue such as the United Arab Emirates.

"We are not insisting to host matches in our country because of the security situation," Butt told AFP in Karachi earlier on Friday.

"It is a serious matter after what happened to the Sri Lankan team here but we will continue to fight for the matches," he added.

"Foreign teams are not coming to Pakistan because of security fears but we will continue to make efforts to convince the three other countries to give us matches."

Butt said there were "various options at our disposal" ahead of a meeting of the tournament's Central Organising Committee (COC), which will decide how many of the World Cup matches are played in each of the other three host countries.

ICC president David Morgan, speaking after the second day of the governing body's board meeting at Lord's on Thursday, said the PCB remained a World Cup co-host and would still receive a fee of 750,000 US dollars for each of its 14 matches - 10.5 million dollars in total.

Pakistan, who beat Sri Lanka in Sunday's World Twenty20 final at Lord's, are about to embark on a tour of the island nation, starting next week, featuring three Tests, five one-day internationals and one Twenty20 international.

(Article: Copyright © 2009 AFP)